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I've actually been quite busy on a PS3 system since I purchased one last July, and the one game that I've been enjoying consistently on it is FarSight Studios' The Pinball Arcade. I actually quite admired FS' Williams and Gottlieb compilations on the PS2 and GameCube in the past, and Pinball Arcade is a true evolution of the company's pinball emulation to heightened levels. My favorite available table is FunHouse (Williams, 1990), which features a talking ventriloquist named Rudy that not only taunts and lauds the player, but also "watches" the ball roll around the table. I never played FunHouse in the wild, but after countless hours playing it in virtual form, there are several neat touches that I have nothing but respect and appreciation for.

Drop 7 on my cracked iPod touch (fell out while cycling... twice! now my screen resembles a spider's web and the only thing holding my ipod still together is the protective sheet to prevent scratches). Why nothing else you wonder? Because of Steam. Dear Steam, I hate you. Especially your broken "offline mode", which NEVER works when any of my pc's or laptops is actually offline.

I'm sitting in my new flat, unboxed all my moving boxes and want to finish Bioshock Infinite but I can't. Because Steam doesn't let me go into offline mode. What good is an offline mode that needs a permanent online connection I wonder? Why don't they just call it the lolzpwnd mode?

I just bought some extension cord so that I can finally hook up my tv and playstation. Then I can play some games again. But not the one I want to play right now, because of my poor judgement of buying it on PC just before moving house. Steam, I hate you with the burning passion of a thousand suns.

That's why I'm still dropping numbers in Drop 7. Really good game btw. and works offline. Unlike Steam, that steaming pile of garbage. It's not so easy to casually carry my desktop to the nearest place with free wifi to go online to activate my offline mode you see?

Yes, I'm slightly angry. Sorry for the rant.

I should have internet again by the end of the week, then life will be good again. Also, hello England, you're a weird country. Looking forward to climbing in Dorset.

I guess it would suck to pay full price for a new game on Steam and not have it work...

For the most part though, games on Steam are so cheap that I can easily forgive all of the minor trouble the service has caused me over the years. In fact, the number one complaint I've heard about Steam has been that the sales are too good, causing people to buy games they know they'll never have time to play. That's certainly the boat I'm in.

My timing in video games is terrible, so I looked on Parry as an all-or-nothing kind of proposition - if I didn't time it right I was wide open (and therefore dead). So I went the shield route instead and never had any truck with it. It would have been handy against some guys, like Gwyn, I hear.

Have you played Path of Exile at all? I downloaded it last night but I don't really understand the appeal of this type of game - I'm about 30 feet outside the first town and I already have too much loot to carry. I may have to read a guide to figure out how to play.

I've actually been quite busy on a PS3 system since I purchased one last July, and the one game that I've been enjoying consistently on it is FarSight Studios' The Pinball Arcade. I actually quite admired FS' Williams and Gottlieb compilations on the PS2 and GameCube in the past, and Pinball Arcade is a true evolution of the company's pinball emulation to heightened levels. My favorite available table is FunHouse (Williams, 1990), which features a talking ventriloquist named Rudy that not only taunts and lauds the player, but also "watches" the ball roll around the table. I never played FunHouse in the wild, but after countless hours playing it in virtual form, there are several neat touches that I have nothing but respect and appreciation for.

Wow. I was looking through my PSN history and I noticed I had this, with 4 free tables. What a great game, I had no idea pinball could be so much fun. I really have no idea what I am doing as I've never played pinball before, but I'm loving it so far. Cheers.

I am finally playing Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut. My initial enthusiasm for it may have been overstated.

York doesn't seem as funny or charming this time around, and his conversations with Zach in the car are pretty flat - just lists of 80s movies to fill the silence.

They didn't fix the stupid map, and the driving is still terrible. The chase sequence in the lumber mill is undoubtedly the worst ten minutes of a video game that I've ever had to endure. And then I accidentally pressed Leave Game rather than Continue and I had to do it all over again! Arrrrrggh.

So I'm in Day 2, the day of the town meeting, having finished the hospital and mill, and I have some scope for exploring the town. Here's hoping it picks up.

Day 2 was a massive improvement - it was raining, and everywhere was closed, so I just tooled around Greenvale in my cop car doing minor things (caught a legendary salmon) before the town meeting. I think the wacky map - though it is flat out awful as it has no zoom and rotates with you so you have no sense of where anything is - makes you work hard at your navigation and actually learn the town layout, which in turn kind of bonds you with the place.

Then there was the town hall meeting and the meal with the other cops in the diner later, both of which were superb. Then a visit to both bars, and home to write up my report. Really cool way of reprising the case with York asking Zach about various bits of evidence. It was ruined somewhat by the intrusion of some kind of framing\flashback scene at that point which is new and possibly unnecessary. Onwards to Chapter 2!

It's aggravating. This port is a shoddy, shoddy piece of work. The sound is a disaster - the characters are missing random words in the middle of a sentence now; they just cut out.

The subtitling has been done by a 15 year old internet commenter, by the looks of it. 'Where' instead of 'were', 'loose' instead of 'lose'.

They have literally not improved anything from the Xbox version, and made some things objectively worse. Fucks sake.

Balancing that out is the continuing strength of the cut scenes - and I suppose at the end of the day, this is a cutscene-driven game held together by some shonky mechanics. Often, a frustrating hour or two in the main game is saved by a powerful scene just before you log off.

A funny thing - the combat isn't too bad. It achieves what it sets out to do - a survival horror lite vibe - and the environments, though corridor-based, still remain pretty creepy. I have the Infinite Magnum now though, so no trouble there (though I still have to contend with the QTEs).

I've actually been quite busy on a PS3 system since I purchased one last July, and the one game that I've been enjoying consistently on it is FarSight Studios' The Pinball Arcade.

QXZ, if you're reading this, have you any tips for me? I'm playing the Arabian Nights table, but I feel that it is completely dependent on luck how well I do. I have no table control whatsoever. I get the idea between controlling the ball by trapping and keeping it away from the slingshots, but...aaaggggh! Is it just practice makes perfect? I'm flailing here...

Edit: the fact I'm playing the Arabian Nights table is irrelevant, I have these issues on all tables.